Saturday, February 11, 2017

More Amish History -- The Newcomer (with a GIVEAWAY)

(Be sure and read to the end of this post to find a chance for a great GIVEAWAY.)

A couple of years ago, Suzanne Woods Fisher penned Anna's Crossing, an awesome story based on some of the earliest days of Amish settlers in the United States. In response to her readers' thirst for more, she has continued the story of Anna, Bairn, and others in their early days in their new world. In The Newcomer, Suzanne weaves together some actual historical events and characters with details from her research and characters of her own imagination for a continuing look at early Amish life in Pennsylvania.

As always, Suzanne brings characters to life with the joys, difficulties, and challenges of their lives. Not every person and every situation has a "happy-ever-after" ending, but they all have their fair share of adventure. From devout church members to risk-taking searchers, the characters struggle to find their places and deal with right and wrong in making life-changing decisions.

In addition to the Amish history, Suzanne also brings in some history of another religious group from 18th-century Pennsylvania.

Because of the time and setting of the book, this is quite different from most Amish fiction. For readers interested in the history behind the fiction, The Newcomer is a fascinating read that I highly recommend.

Thanks to Celebrate Lit for providing a copy of this book and allowing me to participate in this tour. I was happy to share my thoughts about the story.

About the Book:

In 1737, Anna Konig and her fellow church members stagger off a small
wooden ship after ten weeks at sea, eager to start a new life in the
vibrant but raw Pennsylvania frontier. On the docks of Port Philadelphia
waits bishop Jacob Bauer, founder of the settlement and father to ship
carpenter Bairn. It’s a time of new beginnings for the reunited Bauer
family, and for Anna and Bairn’s shipboard romance to blossom.

But this perfect moment cannot last. As Bairn grasps the reality of
what it means to be Amish in the New World–isolated, rigid with
expectations, under the thumb of his domineering father–his enthusiasm
evaporates. When a sea captain offers the chance to cross the ocean one
more time, Bairn grabs it. Just one more crossing, he promises Anna. But
will she wait for him?

When Henrik Newman joins the church just as it makes its way to the
frontier, Anna is torn. He seems to be everything Bairn is not–bold,
devoted, and delighted to vie for her heart. And the most dramatic
difference? He is here; Bairn is not.

Far from the frontier, an unexpected turn of events weaves together
the lives of Bairn, Anna, and Henrik. When a secret is revealed, which
true love will emerge?

About the Author:

Suzanne Woods Fisher is an award-winning, bestselling author of more than a dozen novels, including Anna’s Crossing, The Bishop’s Family series, and The Inn at Eagle Hill series, as well as nonfiction books about the Amish, including Amish Peace and The Heart of the Amish. She lives in California. Learn more at www.suzannewoodsfisher.com and follow Suzanne on Twitter @suzannewfisher.

Guest Post from Suzanne Woods Fisher:

Pennsylvania of 1737, the setting for The Newcomer, is like a
foreign country. Parts of it might seem familiar—the same hills and
creeks and blue sky, but we’d hardly recognize the settlers. People like
Anna, or Bairn, or the mysterious Newcomer. We wouldn’t be able to
understand their language, their customs and traditions. Their world was
that different from our modern one.

The first group of Amish immigrants (first written about in Anna’s Crossing and followed up in The Newcomer)
settled northwest of Philadelphia, then a vast wilderness, and relied
on each other for safety, security, building projects, and church. In
nearby Germantown, settlers were tradesmen, so they clustered houses
together in small knots. The Amish farmers took out land warrants for
sizeable properties and lived considerable distances from each other.

In The Newcomer, Anna cooked food in a cauldron over a large
hearth. One-pot meals can trace their beginnings to open-hearth cooking
when ingredients for a meal went into a large kettle suspended over the
fire. Traditional dishes—ham and beans, pork and sauerkraut—used
sturdy, available, and simple ingredients that improved with long, slow
cooking. The dishes could be easily expanded when the need arose to set a
few more places at the table. And it did, often. Large families and
unannounced company inspired Amish cooks to find ways to “stretch the
stew.”

Noodles (including dumplings and rivvels) could be tossed into a
simmering broth to make a meal stretch. Most farms had a flock of
chickens, so eggs were easily at hand. Today, homemade noodles are still
a favorite dish.

Another “stew stretcher” was cornmeal mush, originally eaten as a
bread substitute. Early German settlers who made their home in eastern
Pennsylvania roasted the yellow field corn in a bake oven before it was
shelled and ground at the mill. The roasting process gave a nutty rich
flavor to the cornmeal. Mush is still part of the diet the Old Order
Amish—cooked and fried, baked, added into scrapple, smothered in
ketchup. Dress it up and you’ve got polenta.

Now here’s one thing we do have in common with 1737 Pennsylvania
immigrants…a love of good food and a shortage of time! Here’s one of my
favorite one-pot recipes—probably not the kind of stew Anna might have
made for ship carpenter Bairn or the mysterious Newcomer (ah, which man
one stole her heart?)…but definitely delicious. Enjoy!

Lentil Chili

Here’s one of my favorite “stew stretchers.” You can expand it even more by serving over rice.

About Me

Faith and family are my highest priorities. My faith is in God. Without His strength for my life -- well I just wouldn't make it! My family includes my pastor husband, an adult son, an adult daughter and son-in-law, and the most precious grandsons and granddaughter there are! I retired after teaching high school math for 34 years.